Free Worldwatch Research

China’s need for secure, affordable, and environmentally sustainable energy for its 1.3 billion people is palpable. In 2006, China’s energy use was already the second highest in the world, having nearly doubled in the last decade, and its electricity use is growing even faster, having doubled since 2000. With both energy-intensive industry and high-tech manufacturing, China now serves as factory to the world.

Is there a scientific evidence base demonstrating that the use of family planning contributes to environmental sustainability? This report explores that question based on a two-year collaborative review of more than 900 peer-reviewed research papers from around the world published from 2005 through early 2016.

The Caribbean region stands at a crossroads, faced with several critical challenges associated with the generation, distribution, and use of energy. While onerous, these shared challenges are far outweighed by the region’s tremendous potential for sustainable energy solutions. By acting on this potential, the Caribbean can assume a leading role in the global effort to combat climate change while promoting sustainable regional economic and societal development.

The region of Latin America and the Caribbean is already a global low-carbon leader in terms of power generation from hydrological and biomass resources, and it recently has made great strides in developing its other renewable energy sources. Declining costs, maturing technologies, and vast untapped potentials for renewables offer an unprecedented opportunity for further development of the renewable energy market in the region. Continuing to invest in renewables will provide Latin America and the Caribbean with the opportunity to address key economic, social, and environmental challenges in the energy sector. This publication available for free download.

Haiti’s electricity sector stands at a crossroads. Haiti depends on imported petroleum for 85% of its electricity generation, diverting 7 percent of its annual gross domestic product to importing fuel. Still, only 25% of the Haitian population has regular access to electricity, bringing barriers to advances in economic opportunity, health, education, and social equality. Yet, according to the Worldwatch Institute’s new Haiti Sustainable Energy Roadmap report, tremendous opportunities and actionable solutions exist to build an electricity system that is economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable. This publication available for free download.

Central America is at a crossroads. As the economies of Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama expand, regional use of fossil fuels for transportation and electricity generation is on the rise, while the use of fuelwood, primarily for cooking, continues to be unsustainably high. These developments come at the price of rising greenhouse gas emissions, worsening air and water pollution, and significant health and societal costs.